10 Alternative Care Questions Your Acupuncturist Needs You to Answer

Gaining a understanding of what’s going on with you helps Doctors diagnose the root issues impacting your well being.

Even the most seemingly mundane body sensations and functions can help an Acupuncturist start to piece together the story of your health. What medical professionals around the world have come to understand is that health and vitality is intricately bound to our mental state and vice a versa.

Besides the basic name, address, age questions, here’s a list of 10 alternative care questions that an acupuncturist needs you to answer:

1. What are the primary reasons for seeking acupuncture treatment? This can be one or a multitude of reasons. Your answer doesn’t need to be complicated. It can be a simple as I’m looking for help with persistent headaches or more nuanced; I have been trying to conceive with IVF and I’m frustrated because it’s not working.

2. How long have you experienced these issues? While many health issues occur without a long standing pattern, there are instances with issues like anxiety or depression, that symptoms can be sporadic yet have a very long history.

3. What other methods have you used to address your health issues? The more information here the better, have you seen other doctors, self medicated, , taken prescription drugs or pursued alternative health care avenues.

4. What makes your symptoms better? Strangely enough, it can be anything, sleeping, exercise, eating dessert, prescription meds, or working extra long hours. It’s extremely helpful to start tracking the the things that give you relief from your symptoms.

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how severe would you rate your symptoms? Note that just because something is tolerable, it doesn’t make it conducive to wellness. Use your judgement.

6. What is your general stress level, occupational, emotional or otherwise? Stress manifests itself in many ways, be as descriptive as possible.

7. Do you have sex? Not surprisingly, our sexual well being has a huge impact on or mental and emotional health. The frequency of your coupling and wether you enjoy it can help to provide insight into other aspects of your wellness.

8. Do you exercise? Or more aptly put, how are you active? It can be simply that you walk to work everyday or that you regularly exercise. Knowing with what vigor you are active helps tell the story of your health.

9. How is your digestion? Do you urinate often, do you have regular bowel movements, stomach cramps, excessive gas. . While this is not often a topic people want to discuss, it’s important to remember that your body is a highly complex machine with a multitude of parts working in unison to keep you alive, the more know about it’s functions, the easier it is to diagnose root issues.

10. What do you consume? How is your diet, do you smoke, drink alcohol, eat lots of sugar. Our job as acupuncturists is not to judge, but to assess the fuel that you are consuming and see how it’s impacting your well being. There is no one right way to live, but we can make adjustments in our habits to influence our bodies response mechanisms.

The alternative care questions above may vary from Doctor to Doctor, but the concepts are the same, it’s important for us to understand what issues are impacting you, and how they manifest themselves in your day to day life. From there we can begin to explore the best approach to healing.